South Florida Flickr Meetup

Yesterday was the Flickr photo walk I'd been waiting for. It was a blast. More than ten of us got together to shoot up the Las Olas river front.



Thanks to Anna for taking a kickass group shot!



We shot everything. Skateboarders, models in bikinis, trains, even on railroad tracks. Then we finished up the night with a couple of brews and burritos at T-Mex (formerly San Loco).

I was using a lot of off-camera flash yesterday. Inspired by the works of Dustin Diaz, I wanted to try and get a shot where my main subject was illuminated without blowing out the background. It took some doing to get the right exposure, but I was rewarded with these two shots:




Also, Suhey and I started taking a photo class yesterday. It deals mainly with photo composition. Our first assignment is to take 40 black and white pictures. One of these pictures will be presented in class next week. I made sure to take several black and whites at the walk last night. Almost all of them used flash. I like the way it gives skin a silky texture.



After the sun went down, we broke out the tripods.



But there was still enough light for handheld shots by the fountain.



Yesterday was more fun than I'd had in a long time. It was a long day, but definitely one I wouldn't mind repeating. I hope to see more of my new friends from Flickr. Social networks are a lot more fun when ya get to meet new people!

Click here for all the pictures from yesterday's shoot.

An Incredible Backlog

I haven't been twiddling my thumbs since July. No, I've been out taking pictures. That's no excuse for not posting, but at least there's a good amount of things to blog about. Much of my work is on Flickr already. All I need to do now is select the best pictures to highlight, write some copy, and viola! New blog post.

I'll start with the most recent event, the TNF 10-year anniversary.


My pal Ralph came down from DC for this one. He, his brother and a couple of other folks were the originators of the idea. Tuesday Night Football grew from a few highschool buddies and coworkers into a big group of football junkies.

Throughout the years, many faces came and went. (I was one of the ones who went.) But for the anniversary, plenty of old friends stopped in for a few yards in the celebratory game.


I shot most of the game with my Nikon 55-200. My only wish is that I had a longer lens. A 300, 2.8 would be nice. Yeeeaaah. But until then, I make do.

Lighting was pristine. It was late afternoon and the sun was starting to set. Aside from the MS150, I really haven't photographed many other sporting events. It's definately an aquired skill. The trick is thinking ahead of the game. You can't photograph where the ball is. You photograph where the ball is going to be.

This is where looking through the camera with both eyes open is useful. You can follow the movement of the players with the lens and keep an eye on the QB with your other eye.

This technique takes some getting used to. He'll, I'm still not used to it. The idea is an adaptation from when I was a videographer. I worked weddings and my mentor at the time told me to shoot with both eyes open. By doing this, I could keep tabs on what was going on around me and react to shoot something important that might spontaneously happen.


Click here to see more pictures from that day on Flickr.